Takeaways - The Delaware Supreme Court simplified the pleadings-stage test applied to derivative suits where no demand has first been made on the board. Disputes about stockholder books-and-records requests focus...more
Consistent with trends in recent years, in 2019 Delaware corporation law largely was shaped by post-closing suits for money damages against directors who had approved mergers and acquisitions. Two Delaware Supreme Court...more
Following Corwin v. KKR Financial Holdings and other Delaware cases that have reinforced the standards that stockholder suits must meet to survive dismissal, would-be litigants have increasingly invoked Section 220 of the...more
This quarter’s issue includes summaries and associated court opinions of selected cases principally decided between May and August 2019....more
On February 20, 2019, Skadden held a webinar titled “2019 M&A and Corporate Litigation Trends.” The panelists were litigation partner and Delaware litigation practice leader Edward Micheletti and litigation counsel Jenness...more
Under Corwin v. KKR Financial Holdings LLC1 and its progeny, “when disinterested, fully informed, uncoerced stockholders approve a transaction absent a looming conflicted controller,” the irrebuttable business judgment rule...more
In Elizabeth Morrison v. Ray Berry et. al., (dated July 9, 2018), the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the Delaware Chancery Court’s dismissal of deal litigation based on obtaining a cleansing vote under Corwin/Volcano because...more
Earlier this year, the Delaware Supreme Court held that Corwin deference was not warranted where a recommendation statement to stockholders disclosed that a founder and board chairman abstained from recommending in favor of...more
Morrison v. Berry, No. 445, 2017 (Del. July 9, 2018) - Corwin holds that approval of a transaction by a fully-informed, uncoerced majority of the disinterested stockholders invokes the deferential business judgment...more
Since the Delaware Supreme Court decided Corwin v. KKR Financial Holdings LLC more than two years ago, there has been an open question as to whether and to what extent the principles affirmed in that decision apply in the...more
This quarter's issue includes summaries and associated court opinions of selected cases principally decided between November 2017 and January 2018. The cases address developing trends in appraisal, class certification, core...more
Developments in appraisal law, the application of Corwin v. KKR Financial Holdings LLC in post-closing damages actions and the potential expansion of Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corporation (MFW) — a case examining the standard of...more
Stockholder M&A challenges in the Delaware Court of Chancery have declined in the wake of the well-known Trulia (and its federal corollary Walgreens) and Corwin decisions, which respectively reduced incentives for pre-closing...more
On December 29, 2017, Vice Chancellor Joseph R. Slights III of the Delaware Court of Chancery granted a stockholder’s demand to inspect books and records related to the acquisition of West Corporation (“West”) by Apollo...more
On December 29, 2017, the Delaware Court of Chancery declined to extend the ruling in Corwin by finding that the approval of a merger by a vote of the disinterested stockholders does not act as an impediment to a properly...more
Since its issuance in 2015, the Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in Corwin v. KKR Financial Holdings LLC has been routinely applied, in appropriate circumstances, to dismiss post-closing deal litigation. However, Corwin’s...more
What is the most significant recent development in Delaware, from a litigation standpoint? The most significant recent development impacting deal litigation in Delaware is the continuing evolution of the Corwin doctrine,...more